Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Housing advocates claim Sandy storm funding was awarded before state set the ground rules

sandy_housing.jpg

With many homeowners still struggling in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, housing advocates say the state failed to set clear guidelines on the awarding of millions in storm assistance.
(Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger)

"They made the decisions who would get the funds and then they made up the rules..."

TRENTON — A coalition of housing advocates claimed today that the Christie administration never had any clear guidelines for awarding Hurricane Sandy relief funds until after it began paying out the money.

The group, which filed suit against the state for documents related to the relief effort, said it found thousands of people affected by Sandy were put on wait lists or rejected from specific aid programs before the formal guidelines were put in place.

Administration officials called the allegations “unfounded,” saying eligibility requirements were clearly established at the programs’ inception.

At issue is $600 million in federal funds earmarked to help homeowners repair or rebuild in the wake of Sandy under the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation or RREM program. Another $180 million is to be awarded through the Homeowner Resettlement Program which provides up to $10,000 in assistance to eligible homeowners who promise to stay for at least three years in the county in which they were living when the storm hit on Oct. 29, 2012.

While both assistance programs began in May, the Fair Share Housing Center — which sued the state in September for the public records — said the documents it received show the administration did not adopt comprehensive policies for the operation of the resettlement program until July. Policies for the RREM program were not adopted unitl until October, it said.

“They made the decisions who would get the funds and then they made up the rules,” said Kevin Walsh, associate director of the Fair Share Housing Center, an advocacy group for low-income residents.

The administration has never made the policies public, he said.

Earlier this week, Gov. Chris Christie made clear that he had little patience for the group, which has clashed repeatedly in court with the administration over the allocation of affordable housing funds. The governor said Fair Share Housing had reviewed every piece of paper that came across his desk.

“Don’t ask me any questions about Fair Share Housing. They’re are hack group that I’m just not going to waste my time or my breath on,” Christie said at a press conference on Monday.

Walsh responded that the governor “would be better off focusing on these problems instead of calling us hacks.”

According to Walsh, the lack of rules on the recovery funds led to widespread confusion in the distribution of the money.

“People in call centers were told one thing when policies said they should be told something else,” he said, adding Spanish-speaking people were getting misinformation because the state was not updating its website in Spanish.

Walsh said the problems affected the poor and lower-income residents disproportionately, calling it further evidence the hurricane recovery effort was being mismanaged.

Lisa Ryan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Community Affairs, said the allegations were false and that eligibility requirements for both programs were clearly established from the start.

“As the programs were implemented, the guidelines in place from the beginning were merely refined or clarified along the way to make the programs better,” Ryan said. “In every instance, applicants deemed ineligible were notified as to why and, more importantly, informed of their rights to appeal.”

Ryan said that since housing recovery funds started flowing in New Jersey, nearly half the money has been allocated or has already been paid out to people in need.

“To date, nearly three-quarters of those funds have been distributed to low- or middle-income people,” she said. “All of this has happened despite increased federal regulations put in place after Katrina to prevent fraud and waste.”